As a result of the backlash — coming in the form of letters, phone calls and emails — the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has delayed signing off on Synagro's plans.

Industrial sludge is what remains after a business breaks down leftovers from processing products ranging from poultry to paper. Depending on its source, the sludge can be pulpy, mudlike and oozing, or resemble normal dark soil.

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Synagro Technologies, a Baltimore-based waste management company, faces grass-roots opposition to its application to spread industrial waste as fertilizer over farms in seven Virginia counties.
As a result of the backlash — coming in the form of letters,...